Need the best over-ear headphones? Our CNET experts have compiled a range of options for different preferences and budgets.
CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. bluetooth headphones for helmet
Know how much you're willing to spend on headphones before you start doing serious research.
Noise canceling features in phones are great, but can impact sound quality. You need to choose which is most important to you before buying.
Most good over-ear headphones now offer Bluetooth with a physical cable you can use when you choose to, but not all of them. Know what you're getting yourself in to before buying.
It's important to know you can wear your headphones for long periods of time, without any pain or pinching.
If you're going to spend the money, you should know the headphones will last for a while.
Make sure you buy from a reputable source, so you can return the headphones if you try them out and don't care for them.
CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.
Know how much you're willing to spend on headphones before you start doing serious research.
Noise canceling features in phones are great, but can impact sound quality. You need to choose which is most important to you before buying.
Most good over-ear headphones now offer Bluetooth with a physical cable you can use when you choose to, but not all of them. Know what you're getting yourself in to before buying.
It's important to know you can wear your headphones for long periods of time, without any pain or pinching.
If you're going to spend the money, you should know the headphones will last for a while.
Make sure you buy from a reputable source, so you can return the headphones if you try them out and don't care for them.
In-ear true wireless earbuds like the AirPods Pro 2 are the most popular headphones right now, but plenty of folks prefer good, old-fashioned over-ear headphones. And they do make a great tech gift for someone -- or yourself -- this holiday season.
Most of the over-ear headphones on this list are wireless Bluetooth headphones with active noise canceling. (Some but not all wireless headphones also come with a cable for wired listening.) But I've also included a handful of wired-only over-ear headphones for the audio purists out there. Keep in mind that many of these models may be discounted during Black Friday headphone sales.
When testing and evaluating over-ear headphones, we consider factors like build quality, comfort and sound quality, as well as noise-canceling and voice-calling performance. This list is regularly updated as more over-ear headphones hit the market, with the most recent addition being the Noble Fokus Apollo .
Read more: Best wireless earbuds of 2024
While Bose's new flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones may not be a huge upgrade over the company's Noise Cancelling 700 headphones, they feature a more premium design along with Bose's new immersive audio feature, which delivers some sound-quality enhancements. Along with excellent sound and great noise canceling, the QC Ultra Headphones are also superb for making calls, with top-notch background noise reduction. All that adds up to the best new noise-canceling headphones of 2024 and a worthy adversary to Sony's highly rated WH-1000XM5 and Apple's AirPods Max.
bluetooth enabled motorcycle helmet The headphones go into a sleep mode when you take them off your head.